Operating mechanisms are used in large numbers in many fields of engineering. An especially important area of use is, among other things, engine control in an automobile and controlling engines in aircraft.
One method of controlling an operating mechanism is known from DE 10 2004 027 033 A1. Here, a control device in application of an operating mechanism/debug interface and a memory built into the control device, stores data from the operating mechanism in the memory of the control device and upon using the operating mechanism/debug interface further, data are also reflected back into the memory of the operating mechanism. In one embodiment, the data are received in the control device of a coordinating unit and provided for a temporal arrangement using a time stamp. Furthermore, the coordinating unit has connections available for internal and external triggering signals by which it is possible to activate corresponding subunits in the control device and in particular to start a bypass routine.
Also from DE 10 2006 062 555 A1, a method is known for monitoring an operating mechanism, in which a control device for monitoring an operating mechanism includes at least one microcontroller, at least one memory, and at least one debug interface. With the debug interface, the so-called trace functionality exhibits that it is possible to monitor the addresses to be observed.
From the previous method, it appears that manipulation of the operating mechanism functions is time-intensive and is often performed using a so-called external bypass routine. Here, in executing the program, an interrupt processing is solicited with an external manipulation device using the operating mechanism's program of permanently pre-set service calls by the operating mechanism using externally defined trigger pulses. Within the framework of the interrupt processing, the values additionally needed for calculation are sent to the manipulation device. After calculation in the manipulation device, the altered quantities are sent back to the operating mechanism. While the service calls are permanently linked in the program code of the operating mechanism, a subsequent change in service-call points is very expensive and can only be performed by each operating-mechanism manufacturer at great expense, because, for example, the operating-mechanism program already existing has to be transmitted again. Furthermore, using the service-call points, the size of the memory needed is increased and the processing speed of the operating-mechanism program is affected detrimentally.